RIP to Around the Horn, Which Was Appointment Viewing Back in the Day
ESPN plans to hit the mute button on “Around the Horn.”
The show’s legendary run of more than two decades will conclude in the summer of 2025, sources told The Post.
The Post previously reported that the show’s cancellation was under consideration by company brass.
Around the Horn was must-watch television when it launched back in the day. We crammed into my college dorm room, about 7-8 degenerates with spit cups, and watched Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption for an hour straight, then went down to the dining hall to fill our bodies with trash. This was 2003 or so, and back then there was no social media, humans were still trying to figure out the internet, and shows like First Take were in an embryonic state. Cold Pizza came around at some point in the mid-2000s, and then Facebook, and the smartphone, and it was all downhill from there.
But back then you got your sports debate in the form of Max Kellerman and then Tony Reali dishing out questions and muting hosts like Woody Paige when they said something dumb. There were so many OGs on there who became household sports names, like Bob Ryan, J.A. Adande, Jackie MacMullan, Michael Smith, Jay Mariotti, Kevin Blackistone, Tim Cowlishaw, and Bill Plaschke. There was humor and opinion without the manufactured debate, and back then it was one of the best sports shows out there. It really was unique when it came out. There wasn’t anything else like it on ESPN or any channel, really.
The show lost some luster in the contemporary hot take world. You can find opinions anywhere these days. James Kratch of Access Media thinks that ESPN got away from having local columnists and started putting network talent on there, which made it just another ESPN show. I agree with that. It just felt like another regular program in a larger catalogue. There wasn’t anything special or unique about ATH over the last 5-10 years, and perhaps oversaturation of sports content played a role as well. Around the Horn used to stick out because back then you watched ESPN. That’s just what you did. Stuart Scott, Tony Kornheiser, Mike Wilbon, etc. Now you have 400 social media networks, podcasts, YouTube shows, websites, all of that. For ATH to last as long as it did is a big success. Two decades+ of sports television with the same format and little-to-no tweaks is supremely impressive. RIP to Around the Horn.